Mostly Apple wants to ensure that PWAs can't emerge as a viable option. As long as they're on WebKit, they can ensure that the apps are limited in their functionality.
The only reason Apple does not want PWA is because it threatens their App Store profit.
More information: https://open-web-advocacy.org/blog/apple-backs-off-killing-w...
Employees take money and do what is required of them, and otherwise do what they think is awesome. Employees think PWAs are awesome so PWAs happen... until they threaten almighty App Store then it stops.
I don't see how a PWA-enabled Safari fits into this narrative.
Timeline:
0) Apple hires key people and invests 4 years in PWA support for Safari on iOS.
1) Apple releases support for PWAs in Safari for iOS worldwide.
2) The DMA compliance thing happens.
3) Apple allows alternative browser engines + disables PWAs in the EU.
4) Apple rolls back PWA disablement in the EU.
I mean, 0 and 1 are not some skunkwork. It hasn't been sneaked into the release. PWA support predates this DMA drama. It was disabled only in the EU.
PWAs challenging App Store revenue is completely orthogonal to them being Safari-exclusive or not. PWA support for iOS has been invested on, released, enabled, and has even more features coming up and prereleased in the tech preview. Nobody forced Apple to do that. That alone is solid material fact, blowing away hypothetical claims of evil intent.
Apple has been actively using the existence of PWA's as an argument in court that it's App Store does not have a monopoly on iOS app distribution. So, yes... It's likely Apple want's PWA's to exist on iOS.
It's also very likely (given their financial incentives) that they don't want them to be a very good experience.
They then realized that they could make much more money with locked-down proprietary apps that they could tax at will through their App Store. Since then Apple has blocked any meaningful evolution of web apps, to prevent them from competing with native apps.
The App Store was opened in 2008, and was a huge success in 2018 (https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2018/01/app-store-kicks-off-2...: “New Year’s Day Sets Record With $300 Million in Purchases”)
If “Since then Apple has blocked any meaningful evolution of web apps”, why did they add support for PWAs on iOS in 2018? (https://medium.com/awebdeveloper/progressive-web-apps-pwas-a...: “Safari is finally adding PWA features.”)
1) From a regulation standpoint, it's in Apple's interest for PWA's to exist; Apple has used the argument in court that PWA's are a viable alternative to it's App Store and therefore it does not have a monopoly on iOS "apps".
2) From a financial standpoint, it's in Apple's interest for the PWA experience to be sub-par.
And this is how we got here.
PWA’s were a brand new subsystem introduced in iOS 11 with substantial (yet not emough) ongoing investment since then.
The conspiracy theory still doesn’t answer “why have then been investing in PWA’s since iOS 11?”, if they wanted them dead they could have just removed them rather than doing incremental enhancements.
...Like, seriously? I can fully understand disliking Apple, and disagreeing with their choices, but to claim that none of Apple's stated concerns—which are perfectly reasonable on their face, regardless of whether you consider their weight to be sufficient to justify the choice—are legitimate at all? That they are only concerned with profit?
We don't need to speculate, cross-browser PWA work fine on Android and are secure.
No, Apple's claims do not seem reasonable or valid here since there's an existing implementation contradicting them.
Regular sites in browser tabs can have SWs.
When the full Chrome(ium) or FF hits iOS (engine and all), they will want to run SW. And, if I understand the DMA correctly, Apple will be forced to make that possible for 3rd party browser engines.
For a long time they appeared to be in maintenance mode on iOS. They’re still years behind what Chrome allows PWAs to do.
I used this when I was taking a break from chrome, because Firefox cancelled their PWA support for Desktop.
And that’s not what most people consider a PWA.
Any app that's geared towards visitors or tourists is better served as a PWA - think of the apps used to pay for transit, or parking in a city you're visiting. A website is Ok, but offline access and a shortcut on the homescreen would be better.